


Memories From One Of Nine Lives

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Bittersweet, Even if He's Not With HIs People, Flashbacks, Gen, Spoilers for Episode 190, The Admiral Is Living His Best Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28942683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: Hands grab him out of the water and he sinks his claws into cloth and flesh. The person who had picked him up squeaks in pain just like one of his litter-mates would have, but they don’t let go of him.“Poor little thing,” the person says, holding him close. The kitten burrows against their coat, still crying. “Shhhh, it’s okay. I have you.”The person takes him to a good place, a warm and dry place, gives him food and a name and love and becomeshisPerson.Fearless Hunter Who Walks Silent Beneath The Unblinking Sky growls and paws at his head with one giant paw. There has never been anything but his City, his Territory. He’s never been so small and weak, never beenafraid. Fear is for prey.------His life may have changed, but some memories still remain.
Relationships: Georgie Barker/Melanie King
Comments: 11
Kudos: 55





	Memories From One Of Nine Lives

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, as soon as I heard the Admiral was alive and that he was in a whole place full of cats, well, I couldn't *not* write this. Plus I love writing about things that don't normally get viewpoints. Like cats.

Every cat has their preferred hunting grounds. For Fearless Hunter Who Walks Silent Beneath The Unblinking Sky _(_ a name conveyed through scars and scent and subvocal purr), it was the City. The City with its alleyways as tall and deep and canyons, its rooftops stretching for miles in every direction. It was a city full of prey, full of fear, full of the scent of blood and the sound of crunching bone. It was a good city, a good Domain, all his to defend from those that would challenge, would intrude.

The wind changes suddenly, bringing a new scent. Not the scent of those he shares his territory with. Not a fear scent, a prey scent, not _sourspicysweet_ , but something different. Something warm, something bold, the smell of something that has no fear. It shouldn’t be familiar, not here in this place, where fear is everywhere, it’s out of place, it’s—

_It’s raining in the city. The kitten hates the rain, hates being wet. He huddles in a corner of the cardboard box he had been placed in this morning and shivers. He cries piteously for his mother, but she does not come. She is back in the place where he was born, the warm place, the dry place. He doesn’t understand why he and his brothers and sisters had been taken from his mother and the warm place and put in the box. Had they done something wrong?_

_Hands had reached down and taken his brothers and sisters, one by one. Were they in good places? Warm places? Dry places? He wants to be in a good, warm, dry place too. He tries once again to climb out of the box, but the sides are so high, and he is so tired and hungry and cold. He ends up curled up in the corner once more, shivering._

_The box starts moving suddenly, slowly at first, then faster. There’s a sound of rushing water, getting closer, getting louder and the kitten cries out as the box tips over, as he falls out into the rushing water, as—_

_Hands grab him out of the water and he sinks his claws into cloth and flesh. The person who had picked him up squeaks in pain just like one of his litter-mates would have, but they don’t let go of him._

_“Poor little thing,” the person says, holding him close. The kitten burrows against their coat, still crying. “Shhhh, it’s okay. I have you.”_

_The person takes him to a good place, a warm and dry place, gives him food and a name and love and becomes_ **_his_ ** _Person._

Fearless Hunter Who Walks Silent Beneath The Unblinking Sky growls and paws at his head with one giant paw. There has never been anything but his City, his Territory. He’s never been so small and weak, never been _afraid_. Fear is for prey.

The wind gusts, bringing another impossibly familiar scent with it.

_The Person that his Person loves smells different today. The faint smell of anger and blood is still there, old and faded, but the scent of secrets and watching eyes is gone completely, replaced with a sharp scent that makes The Admiral think of the bright bad place with the big needles and sickness smells all around. Is his Person’s Person hurt?_

_The two of them hadn’t entered the bedroom in the usual way, laughing or kissing. They hadn’t put him out of the bedroom either, like they did when they wanted to be loud and sweaty together. They had both been quiet, and he had been allowed to stay, curled up at the foot of the bed. He stretches now, padding up to his sleeping Person’s Person, and gently lays a paw on the bandages covering her eyes._

_“Admiral, no!” His Person grabs him around the middle and pulls him away. He meows in protest, and his Person’s Person makes a sleepy sound and yawns._

_“Georgie?”_

_“The Admiral was playing with your bandages.” His Person squeezes him when she says this, smelling distressed. The Admiral purrs his most soothing purr._

_“He’s just curious,” his Person’s Person says, voice full of sleepy affection. “He’s a cat. It’s how cats are. He didn’t hurt anything.” She reaches out and the Admiral stretches his neck so she can scratch the good spot under his chin._

_“You’re sure?”_

_“Mmm hmm.” Her hand slides along his fur until they reach his Person’s hand, fingers entwining. “You worry too much.”_

_“I have every right to be—“ His Person sighs. “It’s too early for this.”_

_“And I’m right.”_

_“I admit nothing.”_

_The two of them lay back down, the Admiral curled up between them. His Person’s person buries her fingers in his soft fur._

_“You never told me why he’s named the Admiral.”_

_“You know how people leave unwanted kittens in boxes? ‘Free to a good home,’ and all that?”_

_“People actually_ **_do_ ** _that? I thought it was just a cliche.”_

_“People actually do that. It rained so hard that day that his box literally floated away down the street, just like a little boat. Poor baby almost ended up in a storm drain.”_

_“Georgie, patron saint of strays,” his Person’s Person says with a huff of a laugh._

_“You’re not a stray, Melanie.”_

_“Well not_ **_anymore_ ** _.”_

_The Admiral closes his eyes as the sound of kissing starts and falls asleep between his two People, purring._

The wind shifts, bringing the sound of squeaking with it, the weak and pitiful movements of prey scurrying through the streets, the tantalizing scent of fear. The strange thoughts that had been plaguing him vanish, his head instead filled once more with the desire for the hunt, the chase, the slaughter.

“I don’t think he remembers me,” says a voice on the wind.

“That’s probably for the best.”

Fearless Hunter Who Walks Silent Beneath The Unblinking Sky’s jaw chatters in anticipation of the death bite, the sound drowning out voices that shouldn’t be as he bounds away.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m [angel-ascending](http://angel-ascending.tumblr.com) over on Tumblr and [angel_in_ink](http://twitter.com/angel_in_ink) over on Twitter if y’all want to stop by and say hi!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Memories From One of Nine Lives | written by Angel Ascending](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29122665) by [Tipsy_Kitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tipsy_Kitty/pseuds/Tipsy_Kitty)




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